Waiting for the Fat Man to Sing Painting

My work is not the product of computer-generated art- quite the opposite. My creative process is exactly the same as it was fifty years ago, but my tools and equipment have changed. Working with a digital drawing tablet is magical- I use an Intous tablet to clone (copy sections from one source to another), paint and draw (with pixels rather than with vectors), and build my pieces much as I would build a conventional collage. My software consists of Picture Window, Adobe Essentials, and Painter X. I draw on the tablet while watching the piece evolve on my computer screen- something like patting your stomach while rubbing your head, it does take some practice. Once I produce an image I like, I print it on specialty canvas with a 44-ich Epson archival pigment inkjet printer. When the inks cure, I stretch the canvas and 'aerially' drip absorbent ground white gesso over the piece which produces and 'overdrawing' effect on the image. I nmay use stencils, Posca paint pens, solid oil paint bars, more gesso and may coats of high gloss varnish in between the layers of acryics, oil bars and stencils. I never start with a blank or white "˜canvas' but use something with colors or forms that I find appealing as a basis to begin a new piece. I clone repeatedly to build unexpected shapes and combinations and try very hard not to try to control the direction of the work by thinking of the traditional rules or concerns of composition, but I let the piece lead me rather than me forcing it. Dramatic color changes are instantaneous and highly controllable. I often use cropping and re-combinations of parts of a piece on which I am working. When I finish an image I find compelling I print the piece with a 44 inch Epson archival inkjet printer on specially coated high quality canvas, and stretch the piece on deep profile stretcher bars and coat with acrylic gels or varnishes.